Rainer Questions Nigeria , Ghana ’s U-17 Victories

Dipo Ogunsola, Enugu - 07.11.2009

NIGERIA and Ghana might have won the U-17 World titles on three and two occasions respectively, but Willfeld Rainer, the coach of Burkina Faso team is in doubt over the sincerity of these achievements.

“In Africa , they don’t have youth development programme. I am sorry to say this but I don’t know how Nigeria and Ghana did it without proper grassroots programmes for the players.”

Continuing, the German trainer asked”: Do you have national U-10, U-12,U-14 teams? If the answer is no, then where did you get successful U-17 teams? It is a question we must ask ourselves.”

Rainer said it was not enough to pick players from the streets and form a team with them and conclude that they can win an U-17 World Cup.

In Africa, you see talents on display in the parks, on the streets and in circles but if you don’t give them the right training, they can’t just come to the World Cup at the U-17 level to win the cup,” he said.